Arrhenius, Svante ( August) ( born Feb. 19, 1859 , Vik, Swed.—died Oct. 2, 1927 , Stockholm ) Swedish physicist and physical chemist (physical chemistry) known for his theory of electrolytic dissociation and his model of the greenhouse effect. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Early life and education

Arrhenius attended the famous Cathedral School in Uppsala and matriculated at the university in 1876. He received his B.A. in 1878 with mathematics, physics, and chemistry as his major subjects and his Ph. D. in 1884then entered Uppsala University, from which he received a bachelor’s degree (1878) and a doctorate (1884). He was given the honorary title of docent at Uppsala University in 1884 and awarded the Letterstedt a travel stipend by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 18851886. The latter allowed him to complete his education by sojourns (1896-18901886–90) in the laboratories of Wilhelm Ostwald at the University of Riga in Latvia (then part of Russia) and at the University of Leipzig in Germany, Friedrich Kohlrausch at the University of W \’9frzburgWürzburg in Germany, Ludwig Boltzmann at the University of Graz in Austria, and Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff at the University of Amsterdam.

Scientific career

Arrhenius’s scientific career comprises encompassed three distinct specialties within the broad fields of physics and chemistry: physical chemistry, cosmic physics, and immunochemistrythe chemistry of immunology. Each phase of his career corresponds to with a different institutional setting. His years (1884-18901884–90) as a doctoral and post-doctoral postdoctoral student pioneering the new physical chemistry were spent at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and at foreign universities; his work in cosmic physics (1895-19001895–1900) was carried out while professor of physics at the Stockholm H \’9agskola Stockholms Högskola (now the University of Stockholm), ; and his studies in immunochemistry (1901-19071901–07) took place at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen and the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry (established in 1905) in Stockholm.

Arrhenius’s main contribution to physical chemistry was his theory (1887) that electrolytes, certain substances that dissolve in water to yield a solution that conducts electricity, are separated, or dissociated, into electrically charged particles, or ions, even when there is no current flowing through the solution. This was a radically new way of approaching the study of electrolytes that first met with opposition but gradually won adherents through the efforts of Arrhenius himself and Wilhelm Ostwald, chairholder in physical chemistry at the University of Leipzig and founder of the Zeitschrift f \’9fr physikalische Chemie. The same simple but brilliant way of thinking that inspired the dissociation hypothesis led Arrhenius in 1889 to express the temperature dependence of the rate constants of chemical reactions through what is now known as the Arrhenius equation.

"Cosmic physics" was the term used by Arrhenius and his colleagues in the Stockholm Physics Society for their attempt to develop physical theories linking the phenomena of the seas, the atmosphere, and the solid earthland. Debates in the Society concerning the causes of the Ice Ages ice ages led Arrhenius to construct the first climate model of the influence of carbonic acid atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)in the air on the temperature on the ground , published in The Philosophical Magazinein Magazine in 1896. The general rule which that emerged from the model was that if the quantity of CO2increases (CO2 increases or decreases ) in geometric progression, temperature will increase (or decrease ) nearly in arithmetic progression. Linking the calculations of his abstract model to natural processes, Arrhenius estimated the effect of the burning of fossil fuels as a source of atmospheric CO2. He predicted that a doubling of CO2 due to fossil fuel burning alone would take 500 years and lead to temperature increases of 3 -4oCto 4 °C (about 5 to 7 °F). This is probably what has earned Arrhenius his present reputation as the first to have foreseen provided a model for the effect of industrial activity on global warming.

Arrhenius’s work in immunochemistry, a term which that gained currency through his book with this of that title published in1907in 1907, was an attempt to study toxin-antitoxin reactions, principally diphteria diphtheria reactions, using the concepts and methods developed in physical chemistry. Together with Torvald Madsen, director of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, he carried out wideranging wide-ranging experimental studies of bacterial toxins as well as plant and animal poisons. The technical difficulties were too great, however, for Arrhenius to realize his aim to make of making immunology an exact science. Instead, it was his spirited attacks on the reigning theory in the field of immunity studies, the side-chain theory formulated by the German medical scientist Paul Ehrlichat the Institut f \’9fr experimentelle Therapie in Frankfurt , that attracted attention. This, however, was of short duration, and Arrhenius gradually abandoned the field.

Other activities and personal life

Arrhenius was a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1901 -to 1927, and he had a decisive influence on the awarding of the Nobel prizes Prizes in physics and chemistry during most of this that period. He also participated in drawing up the statutes of the Nobel Foundation (1900). His most notable contribution was the suggestion that candidates for the prizes be put forth by foreign as well as Swedish nominators, thereby ensuring that the selection process became international. This suggestion was illustrative of Arrhenius’s internationalist outlook.

Popularization of science was of great concern to Arrhenius throughout his career. His most succesful venture into this genre was Worlds in the Making(1908), originally published in Swedish and translated into several languages. In it he launched the hypothesis of panspermism, that panspermism—that is, he suggested life was spread about the universe by bacteria propelled by light pressure. These speculations have not found their way into modern cosmogony. Arrhenius wrote the article on physical chemistry for the 13th edition (1926) of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Arrhenius married twice, the first time in 1894 to Sofia Rudbeck, who was one of the first Swedish women to have earned a B.A. earn a bachelor’s degree in science from Uppsala University. The marriage was unhappy and short-lived, it ended ending in divorce in 1896. A son, Olof Arrhenius, was born in 1895. Arrhenius’s second marriage was to Maja Maria Johansson in 1905. She was the sister of Johan Erik Johansson, professor of physiology at the Karolinska Institute and a close friend of Arrhenius’sArrhenius. Three children (Sven, Esther and Anna-Lisa) were born in of this marriage.

Arrhenius’s later years were darkened by the First World War I, which dealt a blow to his internationalist outlook and cut him off from his many friends on both sides of the firing linesconflict. In the early 1920’s 1920s, Arrhenius was again able to travel on the continent and to England. His travels were finally cut short by the a stroke which that he suffered in the fall of 1924 and from which he never fully recovered. He died on October 2, 1927 and was buried at the town cemetery in Uppsala, a stone’s throw from the house where his he spent his childhood and youth.Bibliographic references Arrhenius, Svante, Worlds in the making: The evolution of the universe, New York and London, Harpers, 1908. Crawford, Elisabeth, Arrhenius: From ionic theory to the greenhouse effect, Canton, MA, Science History Publications, 1996. Rodhe, Henning and Charlson, Robert

Two books published to commemorate the centennial of Arrhenius’s 1896 paper “On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground” are Elisabeth Crawford, Arrhenius: From Ionic Theory to the Greenhouse Effect (1996); and Henning Rodhe and Robert Charlson(eds.), The